Hormone Health Hub: Expert Insights on Testing, Balance & Better Living — #Neurotransmitters

By Tracy Tranchitella, ND ZRT Laboratory SARS-CoV-2 has been circulating in the global population for over a year. According to Worldometer, at the time of this writing on March 2, 2021, 115 million people have been infected with the virus, 2.5 million have died, and 90 million have survived the infection to go on to have possible immunity. The immune response to the virus can range from asymptomatic to severe illness and death and has aroused fear and uncertainty around the world. For those who have been infected with SARS-CoV-2 and survived, some experience prolonged symptoms beyond recovery from the acute illness....

By Theodore Zava, ZRT Laboratory  While growing your own fruits and vegetables is both challenging and rewarding. Many people plant gardens with the expectation that they can control what goes into their food. Gardening, especially in urban areas, has grown in popularity, but unfortunately, it comes with some risks. Contamination with elements present in the air, soil, or groundwater is a concern in both urban and rural gardens, and fruits and vegetables are good accumulators of heavy metals. This blog post details sources of heavy metal contamination and what you can do to help prevent soil contamination and heavy metal...

Dried urine testing is rapidly becoming the preferred method for neurotransmitter and hormone assessment — but collection timing is everything. In this clinical overview, Dr. Kate Placzek of ZRT Laboratory explains why a single morning urine sample cannot substitute for a 4-time-point collection, how neurotransmitters like epinephrine and norepinephrine follow distinct diurnal rhythms, and why interchanging the first and second morning voids can produce grossly inaccurate results.

Neurotransmitter testing is one of the most powerful functional assessment tools available — but it requires a nuanced approach to interpretation. In this clinical overview, Dr. Kate Placzek of ZRT Laboratory outlines the key fundamentals every practitioner needs before reading a neurotransmitter report: from understanding patterns over numbers and treatment sequencing, to the clinical significance of low serotonin on SSRIs, GABA’s peripheral mechanisms, and when to run a diurnal catecholamine assessment.

Hot flashes, mood instability, brain fog and memory changes during perimenopause are not “all in your head” — but they are very much in your brain. In this in-depth clinical article, Dr. Kate Placzek of ZRT Laboratory explains how declining estradiol disrupts brain glucose metabolism, neurotransmitter signalling and thermoregulation, why perimenopause represents a window of neurological vulnerability, and why the timing of hormone replacement therapy is critical to protecting long-term brain health.